Garden colour all summer long – and easy to grow

Arthur O'Meara's Gardening Column

It’s no surprise that the most frequent question I get asked is, ‘what will give me the most colour in my garden all summer, that’s easy to grow?’.

Very few, if any plants will accomplish this on their own – a combination of plants that flower in succession is the more easily achieved solution.

In pots and containers there are a number of outstanding plants that will flower for the whole summer.

Pot Alstroemeria are a new generation of Peruvian lilies which don’t grow as tall as their predecessors. They grow about a foot high (30-40cm) and will flower continuously all summer, with large trumpet-shaped flowers in a colour of your choice.

They are happy in containers as they like dry conditions. They like full sun, the odd dead heading and they will come back year after year.

Everybody knows the Fuchsia – again they are non-fussy, long flowering plants and the modern varieties have been bred to stay nice and bushy and produce an abundance of bell-shaped flowers.

Agapanthus, which does not flower till later on in the year, makes a spectacular display plant in association with Geranium Roxanne, and you have flowers from May to November.

For more permanent planting, New Zealand Flax or Yucca Gold Sword will enjoy the confines of a container for years.

As I write this, I am looking out the window at a Split Leaf Japanese Maple, which I have had in a pot for at least 10 years, and it’s spectacular.

Japanese Maples are perfectly suited to containers as they don’t like to be too wet in the winter.

Don’t forget to water them in the summer and give them a little of the long-term, slow-release feed once a year – it’s that simple.

Create a flower tower with a large pot and an obelisk, use Sweet Pea or, if you want to be a little more adventurous, try Passion Flower. They grow quite quickly and are surprisingly easy to grow, much easier than Clematis.

Cut them back hard once the season is over, protect the roots from severe frost and they will come back bigger and better every year.

Next week I’ll give a feast of colour for the garden

Plant of the week

West county Lupins – better than all the rest.